Listening Practice from an Anime and/or a Japanese Drama. (With Example)

In my post "Yookoso - A Simple Introduction" I mentioned having an anime or a drama as Listening Practice for Japanese. I do plan to do this with a simple design. If I do decide to add things into this I will only correct it for that Post and forward.

The rules of listening to an anime or drama are quite simple. First and foremost, the anime or drama can change as long as you're consistent with the words provided for the assignment. Words used for the assignment can not repeat on the same days work, but can repeat over the course of a few days, up to three assignments. The assignment most include the title of the anime or drama, the date, 5-15 words, stroke order for the kanji, what the word or phrase is in kana, the meaning of the word or phrase, and your practice for the stroke order.

Example:

___________________________________________                             _____________________
Anime or Drama Title                                                                                        6/5/15
___________________________________________                              _____________________



1.  Konnichi wa
__________________________________________________________________________________
こんにちは                                                                                        
___________________________________________
Hello, Good afternoon
___________________________________________                                Your Practice Here

___________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________


2. nihongo
__________________________________________________________________________________
日本語　　　にほんご                                                                
___________________________________________
Japanese
___________________________________________                                Your Practice Here

___________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________                             _____________________
Anime or Drama Title                                                                                     2015年12月31日
___________________________________________                              _____________________


1.  いま
__________________________________________________________________________________
今                                                              
___________________________________________
Now, just now, soon, the present time,
___________________________________________                                Your Practice Here

___________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________


Notice how in the example that the date changed format. When we learn it, the date will be required in Japanese style, as practice makes perfect. Also note that instead of romanji the word we pulled from the anime or drama is now in kana. Again as we learn more and more, things will change from their original requirements to another. Such as the title of the anime or drama. (ie 14 Year Old Mother ー＞ 14さいのはは　ー＞　１４歳の母。 When we learn enough to understand what we read, there will be a new assignment for that.  Most likely something similar, or even written.

Yookoso - A Simple Introduction.

Where to get started? I guess a simple introduction to this book would be good.

Yookoso 1 has about 170 different kanji, Yookoso 2 includes an additional 191 kanji, Genki 1 and Genki 2 add 317 kanji, making it a total of 678. As long as we do not repeat anything. However, we are bound to repeat kanji, because they are both introduction to Japanese textbooks. I might be adding a few more kanji to the mix, however I wont know that until we're done. Where even this seems like nothing compared to the average of 2,000 kanji that should be "known" for the average high school graduate.

For now let's start off with the basics that each part of Yookoso's Getting Started says that you should learn from them.

Getting Started Part 1
Meeting Others and Introducing Yourself.
Everyday Greetings.
Classroom Expressions
The Japanese Writing System (1): Introduction

Getting Started  Part 2
Numbers up to 20
Asking and Giving Telephone Numbers
Asking and Telling Time
Asking What Something Is
The Japanese Writing System(2): Hiragana (1)

Part 3
Talking About Daily Activities
Talk About Future Activities and Events
Talking about Likes and Dislikes
The Japanese Writing System(3): Hiragana (2)

Part 4
 Talking About Activities and Events in the Past
Inviting Someone to Do Something
Talking About Weekly Schedules
Talking About Weather
The Japanese Writing System(4): Katakana (1)

Part 5
Asking Location
Numbers From 21 to 10,000
Asking About Existence
Asking About Price
Talking More About Likes and Dislikes
The Japanese Writing System(5): Katakana (2)
Introduction to Kanji
Introduction to Yookoso!

Now my lesson plans for Part 1:

Read and take notes on all of part 1. (Using any style that you like.)

Do all activities in written form, or if you know someone that knows Japanese or is studying as well practice with them.

Study Vocab from the Vocab list in Quizlet.

Now here is extras that I'll be adding:
Particles (a little more in depth than Yookoso)
Items From Japanese Pod 101
Required Vocabulary (Vocabulary that Yookoso! says you should know before moving onto the next part)
"Extra" Vocabulary (i.e. Vocabulary that is introduced into the part or chapter but not required to know before moving on.)
Required Kanji and practice sheets. (As long as I can find them, I have found a few that are from Japanesepod101, but I do know this part of their site is something you have to pay for, or use their free trail.)
"Bonus" Kanji or Kanji I introducte before its required.
Practices from Genki 1.
Practices from Genki 1 Workbook.
Listening Practice from an Anime and/or Japanese Drama.

Introduction

photo URL
               

Learning Japanese: Introduction

Sunday 3/22/2015

                   I've wanted, for a long time, to learn Japanese. I kept looking for an easy way to learn, and I wanted to know what others opinions are on the learning it were. There are not that many good websites for Japanese learning... I take that back, there are a few, but what I was looking for was review on textbooks and a helpful guides. They're either good for a little bit or cost money. My plan was to try out textbooks and give my honest opinion on where it gets hard for me, when it's super easy, and just my personal journey through learning Japanese. I've already learned Hiragana, Katakana, and a few Kanji. However I could use a review on them on how they "work". I do know both should be learned around the same time and don't put them off as it will set you back later on. Same thing with learning Kanji, learn some as you go its important!

So far my way of studies for Hiragana are:

1. Hiragana Flash Cards From Barnes and Noble

2. Free Hiragana online Drag n Drop Game

3. Free Hiragana and Katakana practice. This website has a lot of useful worksheets I'll be reviewing later.

4. Try and find a Hiragana and Katakana printout stroke order practice sheet. The one I have you no longer can get, but I'll be copying it for my personal use. (I'll update this later)

5. Hiragana and Katakana song

At this point I've decided to buy a graph paper notebook. It would help me keep my characters about the same size and help with the stroke order when writing. Since I want to be able to speak, read, and write Japanese.

How I learned it: First I listened to the Hiragana and Katakana song over and over again until I could sing along with it. However anyone could learn the patterns in a song, so I took it a step farther didn't use any flashcards, even though I own them, but I put them on my quizlet (I'll add a link later). I studied a few of them at a time until I knew 80-95% of what was in front of me, and then added more to my list. I, towards the beginning of quizlet, started going over everything in the workbook Let's Learn Hiragana. It helped me understand more of the Hiragana than I knew just from studying them, but also how to write it and when things change. For example the phrase "kekkoo desu" means no thank you, but to put it into Japanese you'd have to know how to change the "kko" into Hiragana. It's rather simple, but I didn't know this before I started with this book. It would be translated into:
Kekkoo desu
けっこうです
Where the the following takes place
ke ->け
k->っ
ko->こ
o ->う
de->で
su->す
The reason the second "k" (ke"k"koo desu) is a smaller tsu (っ) is to represent that it's there, and add a half beat of a sound. The other thing you'll notice is the second o (kekko"o" desu) is changed into a u(う) as this happens to long vowel sounds of O. There is many different ways to write long vowel sounds, but we'll get into that a little later.
Another reason why I did enjoy this book was because it had lots and lots of writing practice of what it was teaching you. I believe it starts off teaching a,i,u,e,o,ka,ki,ku,ke,ko then maybe slows down a bit after that, but I don't remember. However once you learn the part you're on it adds words to help you learn from there, and its only Hiragana that you've learned. Words start off simple, but can also end up as a "review" of some hiragana the later you get.
For example you may get the words:
kore (this)
neko (cat)
inu (dog)
 after you've gotten to the underlined part as its farther down (really it would be over) the hiragana chart.

My shopping list so far inculdes:

2 binders (I'm going to go for a theme. I have a Harajuku binder already and it holds BYU online Japanese 1 Part 1 in. I'll be looking for more of these)

Page protecters (Qty will  be updated later, and updated link if not what I was looking for Current date: 6/3/2013)

1 Divider sets (only one because it comes with four sets)

Textbooks I'll be starting with:

1. Yookoso 1

1. Yookoso Workbook 1

2. Yookoso 2

2. Yookoso Workbook 2

3. Japanese for Busy People I (Kana Version)

3. Japanese for Busy People I workbook (Kana Version)

These Japanese text books used to be in order from classes at my college. (I.e. Japanese for Busy People I is the first year of Japanese. Yookoso 1 and workbook 1 are the second year of College. Yookoso 2 and workbook are the third year.) However I've done a little studying since the last time I've tried to blog about it, and found out a way that I find as a "better" way for me to learn.
I'll be starting with the textbook Yookoso! An Invitation to Contemporary Japanese. I have not been able to find a place to download a pdf of this textbook or its workbook. I do suggest at lest buying the textbook from one of the following places: Half Price Books, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon. You could also use the ISB-13 9780070136977 to locate the book in the search. I use the textbook from 1999, and only really paid about 5 dollars for my copy, after shipping. I saw one on there (Amazon) today for about $0.07. (USD) I will be posting my notes from the textbook and linking other websites that might be able to help if you don't have the book, but some of the websites I'll be using are things like Japanese Pod 101 and do cost money monthly. I debated about paying for this site for the longest time, but I do want it there for "extra" study and don't mind paying for it as its the only website I'll be paying for to help aid me in this.

I'll be following the format of Yookoso, but I'll be throwing out some Hiragana practices before we get to them, as Chapter 1 is full of Kana (Hiragana and Katakana) and I'd like to help everyone learn them before we get to that point, I'll most likely suggest doing some links from my quizlet, when I add them, and some print out writing forms to learn to write them down.

I hope you have a great time learning Japanese from this blog if it does help you. If you have any suggestions you can comment below or just email me at: Nihongo.Gerken@gmail.com.
Have a great day!

.

Edit: 3/22/2015 4:58pm US MNT - Changed "a,i,u,e,o,ka,ke,ku,ke,ko" to the correct order "ka,ki,ku,ke,ko", Changed the order of the textbooks so they go in order, and highlighted the ISB-13 for Yookoso 1999 ED in Pink without a background color so you can read it.